Forget $5,000. Bitcoin Will Hit $10,000 on This Date

Buy bitcoin today and you'll be able to buy a lot of candy next Halloween

The predictions of a $10,000 bitcoin price are coming fast and furious, and that’s got retail investors wondering how they can get in on the action.

You can. The question is whether you should?

Howard Lindzon’s a Fan of Bitcoin

If you’re into the markets, you know who I’m talking about. Lindzon, who hails from my hometown of Toronto, is a bitcoin fanatic and considering his success as a venture capitalist of all things related to the markets — think StockTwits, Robinhood and WallStrip — he’s one of the first people you should turn to for help in this area.

Lindzon recently linked to a post by fellow VC Fred Wilson who stated that bitcoin has gone from a means of payment to a store of value because of the cryptocurrencies’ ability to keep appreciating.

If you check out the post, I recommend you read the comments after Wilson’s short but meaningful prose. They help illustrate just how immature bitcoin is despite existing since 2009.

However you choose to view bitcoin doesn’t matter. What does is that there are a lot of people who believe in the cryptocurrency and fully expect the bitcoin value to be higher in five year’s time than it is today.

Bitcoin Price As High as $10,000?

My first reaction to recent predictions of future bitcoin price of $10,000: Why not? People thought Dow 20,000 was crazy and here we are at 22,830. Stuff happens, good and bad, and bitcoin is no different despite the fact most of us are still trying to understand what the heck it is.

InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto recently discussed several reasons why he’s a believer in a $10,000 bitcoin price. Some of the discussion gets a bit esoteric, but ultimately Enomoto reasons that the “timeless” nature of cryptocurrencies makes the exponential appreciation of bitcoin more than plausible.

“Wall Street operates on a shockingly limited schedule. The markets open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. This makes trading on the West Coast quite troublesome. Also, the stock market isn’t open on weekends, and American holidays,” Enomoto wrote Sept. 1.

“Compare that to Bitcoin, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn’t care about holidays. If you want to trade during normal business hours, fine. If you want to trade in your pajamas at 3 a.m., have at it!”

In other words, the old rules don’t apply — and that’s a very good thing.

I’m a firm believer that retail investors like you and I should be able to buy any stock, in any amount, anywhere in the world. If I want to buy a stock trading on the Qatar Stock Exchange (there is one), I should be able to do so at any time of day without a lot of fanfare or expense.

That’s not the case today and I’m not sure if it ever will be given there are vested interests including governments that want to retain control of the levers of power.

Bitcoin removes those shackles, which are precisely why it has the potential to hit $10,000 or more in short order. There isn’t anything in the world of investing that’s nearly as democratic in my opinion.

Sure, the fear of the unknown makes investment gurus like Howard Marks bristle at the idea of cryptocurrencies having real intrinsic value, but Warren Buffett once had a problem with technology and airline stocks—and now he owns both.

Times change. People change. Investments change.

$10,000 By This Date

Despite the fact that Jamie Dimon’s threat to fire anyone trading Bitcoin at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), evidence of a bitcoin rally continues to present itself in the form of institutional investor interest.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that institutional money is what moves markets and bitcoin, fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, is no different.

Former Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz is investing $150 million of his own money (and $350 million from other wealthy investors) in the Galaxy Digital Assets Fund, a hedge fund dedicated to making money from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.

Bottom Line on the Bitcoin Price

Novogratz sees bitcoin at $10,000 within 6-12 months. Self-interest? For sure, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be wrong.

“Remember, bubbles happen around things that fundamentally change the way we live,” Novogratz said in late September.

“The railroad bubble. Railroads really fundamentally changed the way we lived. The internet bubble changed the way we live. When I look forward five, 10 years, the possibilities really get your animal spirits going.”

Bitcoin hits $10,000 on Oct. 11, 2018. You heard it here first.

As of this writing, Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.